Best Ever Chicken Parm

During this hostage situation, where the snow has robbed me and my family of the ability to come and go as we please, I have been daydreaming... 

Not about sunshine and beaches...

Nope.

I have been obsessing over basil.

Ya see, I have been dying to make some of my homemade Shallot Basil Marinara Sauce...

Sure it sounds fancy... but it is easy and it is really GOODe.

So, the other day, when we made our escape before the second big snow hit, I made a mad dash for Walmart and bought me 2... count them... 1... 2... packs of basil.

I whipped up the sauce and needed something to go with, so I started looking for Chicken Parm recipes in my cookbooks...

Not sure why, I am not a huge fan of Chicken Parm... or at least any I have had until now... I always feel like the breading fights with the rest of the dish...

So, after not having any luck finding any recipes for Chicken Parm, I decided to just wing it ;)

I started with 5 chicken breasts. I would have just used 3 or 4, but the bag had 5 left... so FREEZE-O-RAMA mama kicked in and said  "Hey there chickadee, go on and cook them all up and freeze up half" :) 

One of my other big complaints about chicken parm is that it is often a huge hunk of flavorless chicken in the middle of my delightful plate of sketti... so, I decided to remedy this my cutting it into strips and beating the heck out of it with my meat hammer.

Meanwhile, in a less violent part of the kitchen, I took some panko bread crumbs and had a good talk with them. They promised not to make my breading too tough... it could be that they were just scared at what had just occurred with the chicken, but either way, I was VERY happy with the outcome and my friend Panko is to thank...

For the dry team (teams are about all you are going to get out of me Super Bowl wise...just sayin') I took 1 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs.

Added 1/2 Cup fresh grated Parm... You can use the powdered stuff, but fresh tastes so much better...

1 T Salt

1 t Pepper

1-2 T Oregano

Now for the wet team, take 1 Cup Milk (in the cutest measuring cup from Gooseberry Patch for a steal --2 bucks folks!).

Then add 2 Eggs and whisk 'er up

Meanwhile, heat up a couple Tbspns of Olive Oil in your skillet.

Now take your chicken for a dunk in your egg wash...

Then take her for a whirl in your bread crumbs.

Now pop her in the skillet and cook 'er up until golden on both sides and cooked through.

Place you finished nuggets of yumminess in a casserole dish.

Set any extra aside to freeze up for later.

Now cover your chicken with the sketti sauce of your choice... I used my Shallot Basil Marinara Sauce.

Now top with 1-2 cups of Mozzarella... guess how much I used ;)

Now bake at 350 degrees until nice and bubbly baby...

Ooeey Gooeey GOODeNESS...

The cheese is well cheesy heaven, the sauce is amazing and the chicken just melts in your mouth... success!

Enjoy!

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